About Tony Sarris – N2Semantics

I am the founder and principal of N2Semantics. I provide consulting services to companies developing and applying semantic technologies, including artificial intelligence and cognitive computing.
At N2Semantics we believe the future of apps is to make them smarter -- more aware of the world in which they operate to serve the needs and interests of their users.
Our mission is to foster the development of semantic technologies and to help companies determine the best approaches and technologies for adding semantic knowledge or meaning to their applications.

Recently I had the pleasure of presenting at DATAVERSITY’s 2015 Smart Data Conference as part of their track on artificial intelligence (AI). My presentation covered various AI technologies and products and how they are used in ‘smart applications’ in markets ranging from customer care to retail, healthcare, education, entertainment and smart homes. I also delved into intelligent virtual assistants and other forms of software agents, which if you have read many of my blog posts here, you’ll know is a passion of mine. A video of the presentation is available, courtesy of DATAVERSITY. If you don’t already have an account with DATAVERSITY, it’s just a quick registration and they’ll send you on your way to viewing the video.

The DATAVERSITY website has lots of other great resources (articles, white-papers, slides, webinars and other videos) on a wide range of topics around semantic technologies, including artificial intelligence and cognitive computing. Speaking of cognitive computing, I also participated at the conference on a panel discussing the burgeoning commercialization of cognitive computing technologies. An article about the panel session and the full video are here:

The audience in both cases really seemed engaged and interested in the topics, and the discussions both in the sessions and on the sidelines afterwards were stimulating. I ran into a lot of familiar faces who have been working in this field for some time and who, like me, are encouraged to see the high levels of interest on the part of those developing AI technologies and products, and those using them for smart applications. There were lots of new faces, too, both fresh vendors unveiling their products and enterprises interested in exploring practical applications of AI. While there were lots of references to the fear factor around AI, to a large degree the attendees seemed to realize that much of what’s written about AI, the killer robot stories for example, is mostly sensationalism. What doesn’t always get written about — unfortunately — are the hundreds if not thousands of everyday uses of AI that provide real benefits to businesses and consumers. That’s the positive, sunny side of AI. Hopefully my presentation helps get that word out. Attendees who are supportive of AI now have more positive material to help counter all of the negative coverage. Perhaps we’ll get more balanced media coverage going forward, even if the positive uses aren’t always as dramatic as sentient AIs rising up and enslaving the human race!

I hope you’ll enjoy the presentation(s), too. Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or comments, or if you want to discuss any of the topics or technologies covered.

This is my introductory blog. It’s hard to describe what I’m trying to do with N2Semantics without giving you a little background on who I am and what I’ve done so far in my career. I would say I’m a computer scientist or technologist, but not because I particularly like computers or information technology. I like what you can do with such technologies, or even more importantly, what they can do for you!

I spent the early part of my career designing and developing applications, primarily in the fields of product definition (engineering), development (manufacturing) and delivery (packaging, distribution, transportation). I ended up focusing on the representational aspects of such systems — their architecture, logic and data structures. I did a lot of enterprise information modeling, data and process modeling, system and database design, and software development and implementation (and support — let’s not forget support!). I found a passion in the challenges of reflecting the real world inside computer systems. That led me to gaining knowledge and experience in the field of knowledge representation and doing some of the early, pioneering work in conceptual models or conceptual schemas — what came to be known as ‘ontologies’.

Representing human knowledge in a form that computers can make use — and actually enabling them to make use of it — became a life-long pursuit. I’ve been pursuing it for over 20 years and I’m still pursuing it. Along the way, there have been lots of successes and also many failures. If you never make a mistake, you’re probably not pushing the edge of discovery. It’s from those failures that you learn (hopefully!) and they become the basis for progress and success. I’ll try to talk about some of the failures in future blog posts, as well as some successes.

I feel optimistic about pursuing intelligent systems today — more optimistic than I have ever been in my career. I feel the required technology components exist today, at least in sufficient form to put to productive, practical use. And that’s what I want to do. I’m not interested in doing fundamental research. I want to work with providers of leading-edge, innovative technologies and business people with real application ideas and challenges for which those technologies provide enabling solutions. While many technologies comprise pieces of this puzzle, in particular I focus on semantic technologies. I want to help companies use semantic technologies — along with mobile devices, content sources, social media, et al — to create intelligent software agents. In future posts I’ll talk about some of the [productive] ways software agents might assist us in going about our day-to-day lives. That’s what interests me and that’s what’s behind my starting up N2Semantics. The journey into semantic applications is going to be a fun, but challenging journey. Join me on that journey by following this blog.